NFC Hotspots Simplify Content Delivery at Cartes America 2014

Exhibitors were the beneficiaries of a big leap in content delivery technology at Cartes America 2014 this week in Las Vegas, courtesy of ITN.

ITN, the official lead retrieval provider for Cartes 2014, provided every exhibitor who ordered a lead retrieval solution a complimentary BTAG, an innovative wireless hotspot that capitalizes on near-field communication (NFC) to simplify the delivery of content to attendees.

Attendees take advantage of the self-serve hotspots by touching them with their show badges. The touch logs the attendee’s request for whatever content the exhibitor has assigned to the BTAG.

Links to that content are provided to the attendee at the end of each day of the event through an email.  A cumulative email is also sent at the close of the event with all the links assigned to all the BTAGs the attendee touched throughout the entire event.

Email opens and click-throughs are tracked by ITN’s back-end system and reported to exhibitors.

Exhibitors at Cartes America 2014 were impressed by the BTAG’s elegance. ITN has made it easy for exhibitors to upload product information and assign it to a BTAG. And they appreciated the fact that attendees don’t need a special device to collect that content—all they need is their event badge. BTAGs make it easy for attendees to bring home sharable product info, and easy for exhibitors to identify by attendee who’s interested in their products.

As well as functioning as an NFC reader—able to read badge-touches—each BTAG is also an active NFC tag able to pass information to other readers.  As a result, attendees can also touch any BTAG with an NFC phone or tablet to acquire content. In this case, the attendee’s device simply opens the Web link assigned by the exhibitor to the BTAG.

BTAGs are self-contained, battery-powered units that can be affixed with Velcro to any surface, including posters, signs, walls, tables, counters, kiosks and other structures.  A BTAG can also be worn by booth staff, or deployed on pods supplied by ITN.

3 Global Trends in Lead Retrieval

ITN serves more than 15,000 exhibitors around the world. Our interaction with so many clients puts us in the ultimate spot for trend-watching.

Today’s exhibitors, we've noticed, yearn for many improvements in the way they capture leads at tradeshows. But three wants seem to be trending.

Exhibitors want sales-ready leads

No matter how large or small their companies, all executives want their teams to zero in on tradeshow visitors who are “sales ready.”

Distinguishing sales-ready visitors from the rest is an art, not a science; but it’s an art that technology can vastly improve.

Aided by a custom-made lead-qualification survey—one that drills down to such all-important questions as “purchasing authority” and “timing”—any team member can quickly assess who’s hot and who’s not, and respond to the opportunity properly.

When that survey resides on the lead-capture device, the exercise of consistently qualifying visitors feels natural and seamless, and becomes standard practice among the team.

Exhibitors want more leads

While placing priority on sales-ready leads, most executives also want to increase the quantity of leads their companies capture during a tradeshow. They understand that leaving a show with buckets of new leads keeps the sales pipeline filled and justifies the marketing spend.

To boost the quantity of leads collected, the exhibitor first needs to invite visitors through pre-show promotion. Fortunately, technology is available that not only makes pre-show promotion easy, but that lets exhibitors measure precisely the effectiveness of any campaign.

A pre-show campaign can be measured, for example, by storing all invitees (in the form of a “white list”) on every lead-capture device deployed in the booth. Whenever an invitee on the white list visits the booth, he or she is flagged as a respondent to the pre-show campaign.

To boost lead quantity, the exhibitor also needs to equip its onsite team with lead-management technology that helps them raise the level of visitor engagement and lengthen visitors’ “dwell time” in the booth.

Blending gamification with lead capture and qualification is one way many exhibitors are increasing engagement. So that the team’s goal to capture more leads doesn’t conflict with its mandate to focus on sales-ready ones, some exhibitors are also deploying “self-serve” technology that allows visitors to qualify themselves while they explore the booth.

Exhibitors want CRM-compatible leads

Finally, more than ever, executives want to capture leads that are suitable for import into CRM systems.

There’s good reason for this. Best practice shows that an exhibitor’s sales-conversion rate climbs when its tradeshow leads are successfully incorporated into the company’s CRM system.

Two factors determine the exhibitor’s ability to import show leads into a CRM: the harmony between its lead-qualification survey and the data fields in its CRM; and the availability of a “connector” that retrieves the lead data and updates the CRM.

Seem familiar?

If your company is experiencing these trends, it’s smart to consider a custom lead retrieval solution from ITN. With a custom solution, we can help you improve your lead-management process and results significantly.

To learn more, contact Mike Sorgani at msorgani@itnint.com. 

International CES Attendees Enjoy Bottleneck-free Badging

"The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) set out to revamp the attendee experience at its 2014 show and pulled it off, due in large part to ITN International, " says Margo Pierce, writing for EXPO Magazine.

In an effort to reduce waste and leverage technology, show management—for the first time in International CES' history—did not mail badges to attendees before the event, Piece explains.

That meant every attendee's badge had to be generated on demand.

With more than 155,000 attendees descending on Las Vegas, all eager to pick up their credentials and dash into the show, ITN had to assure that onsite badge production and distribution was bottleneck-free.

And it did.

"Anyone could pick up their badges at virtually any time—almost anywhere," Pierce writes.

A citywide network of badge production stations was the answer.

Read the full story here.

Exhibitors Capture Leads from NFC Digital Badges

A purpose-built release of ITN’s BCARD Reader let exhibitors at Mobile World Congress 2014 capture leads from the digital NFC badges many attendees carried on their phones at the Barcelona mega-show in February.

Attendees participating in the “NFC Experience,” an onsite program designed by show management to provide a bundle of event-enhancing NFC services, received one especially practical, time-saving amenity: an NFC digital badge. The NFC digital badge allowed attendees to gain access to the venue without repeatedly needing to show a physical photo ID at the entrances. Instead, attendees accessed the venue through dedicated entrance lanes, where they simply tapped a reader with their phones.

According to show management, 10,000 attendees took advantage of the NFC digital badge.

So that exhibitors could capture leads from attendees’ NFC digital badges, ITN adapted BCARD Reader to read those badges both on Android and WP8 phones.
   

Partnership Lets Exhibitors Capture Leads with Their Own iPhones

DeviceFidelity and ITN International joined forces at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona to provide exhibitors an enhanced “NFC Experience” on iOS.

 

Using DeviceFidelity-powered Cashwrap cases for the iPhones, exhibitors were provided a unique opportunity to read conference badges with ITN’s lead retrieval app BCARD Reader using NFC on iPhone 5S, 5, 4S, and 4.

 

The joint effort between the companies assured that iPhone-carrying exhibitors could also capitalize on the NFC Experience promoted by show manager GSMA, in partnership with DeviceFidelity and Incipio. 

 

The NFC Experience allowed attendees at Mobile World Congress to use their iPhones as show badges, as well interact with signs and posters throughout the event. The official GSMA Mobile World Congress show app worked with the NFC cases, and included digital food coupons for use on site, as well as access to content at citywide NFC hotspots.

 

DeviceFidelity worked with ITN to allow ITN’s BCARD Reader also to run on iPhones equipped with a Cashwrap case, as well as on iPads using DeviceFidelity iCaisse products, so exhibitors could capture leads with their iOS devices.

ITN and InGo Partnering to Boost Attendance of Super Mobility Week

ITN plans to integrate InGo’s social networking tool with its registration Website for Super Mobility Week.

InGo’s tool will allow registered attendees to invite key individuals from their social networks to attend the mammoth event.

The tool also enables attendees to see who within their networks will be attending.

“We’re very excited to launch this new partnership with InGo” says Ivan Lazarev, President & CEO, ITN. “Our collaboration will further differentiate us as a leader in the marketplace and allow our client CTIA to accelerate the growth of its event and gain insight into the demographics that drive the event’s value.”



“This partnership is a comprehensive one, including go-to-market teaming, technical collaboration and custom solution development,” says Michael Barnett, CEO, InGo. “Looking down the line, I am most excited about the information-rich lead analysis that ITN will be able to provide CTIA as a result of this partnership.”

Anchored by two CTIA tradeshows—CTIA 2014 and MobileCON—Super Mobility Week will represent the largest technology event in the second half of 2014, hosting thousands of mobile professionals and executives, 1,100+ exhibitors, and 1,000+ media and analysts.

The event takes place September 9-11 in Las Vegas.

ITN is the official registration and lead retrieval provider for Super Mobility Week.

Exhibitor NXP Uses BTAGs to Deliver Branded Content

ITN's new BTAG is a touch marketing tool that boosts the impact of presentations and demonstrations. A live NFC touchspot, BTAG delivers content whenever an attendee touches it with his or her event badge or NFC smartphone. BTAG lets attendees take home branded content in the easiest way imaginable—by turning their badges and phones into “digital tote bags.” Learn how exhibitor NXP used BTAGs at Mobile World Congress 2014.